Buth Meets Date With Destiny, Now He Can Date

Mission accomplished, Mt. Miguel’s Dwayne Buth can relax and enjoy the rest of his senior year.

Buth won the state wrestling championship at 165 pounds Saturday in Stockton, proving to his friends that his dedication this fall and winter wasn’t that of your average dreamer.

At the beginning of the school year, Buth posted a sign in his bedroom that read, “State is mine in ’89.” He worked out harder than he ever had in his life. And he kept a self-imposed rule against dating during the season.

“The sign helped motivate me,” Buth said. “You know how you always sit in your room and don’t want to run? Well, if I didn’t want to run or work out, I would just look at the sign.”

Buth’s rules regarding his social life allowed him to go out with friends once a week--but not if they were staying out late.

“We’d go to a movie, and then I’d come back home,” he said. “And I didn’t go on dates.”

According to Buth, more than a few girls asked him to a Mt. Miguel High School dance in February, but he declined.

“I figured winning a state title was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I didn’t want anything else on my mind.”

He went 45-1 this season, the only loss an upset at the San Diego Section Masters tournament, when he was pinned by San Dieguito’s Shawn Diamond.

“It was a fluke,” Mt. Miguel Coach Steve Bowdren said. “Dwayne made a stupid move and got caught on his back.”

Buth was state runner-up last year at 154 pounds but won the title this year with a 14-5 decision over Atascadero’s Kevin Ivie. Buth had about 20 family members and friends in Stockton, including brother Dennis, a 1979 Mt. Miguel graduate who made the 14-hour drive from Bullhead City, Ariz. Dennis Buth also wrestled at Mt. Miguel but never won a state title.

“He said everything I did was what he wanted to do,” Dwayne Buth said. “So it’s like I won it for both of us.”

Three San Diego wrestlers were state runners-up: Poway’s Brian Wallner (119 pounds), Monte Vista’s Dustin Harless (138) and Jake Gaier (145).

One of the county’s best players is sitting out this week’s Southern California Regional high school basketball tournament because his team lost last week, but Valhalla’s Tony Clark will be back for another run at the tournament--and section record book--next year.

Clark, a 6-foot-7 junior, won the county scoring title with a 30.4-point average, second on the all-time single season list behind Madison’s Mitchell Lilly (31.9 in 1977) and ahead of Helix’s Bill Walton (29.1 in 1970).

Clark, who played on the Valhalla varsity in two games during his freshman year and his entire sophomore and junior seasons, has 1,212 career points. If he scores as many next year as he did this year (851), he will move into first on the all-time list. Bonita Vista’s Paul Halupa scored 1,982 from 1968-1970.

“He’s versatile,” Valhalla Coach Manny Silva said of Clark. “He can shoot three-pointers, play inside . . . he’s an all-around player.”

Clark averaged 27 points until Rafid Kiti suffered a collapsed lung at the end of January; he then began averaging 40.

How heavy was the pressure Saturday during the section basketball championship games at the San Diego Sports Arena?

Listen to San Marcos’ Susie O’Brien, whose team was defeated by Vista, 65-51, for the girls’ Division II championship: “There was a lot of pressure. When you have parents calling each other up and practicing cheers over the phone, you know there’s a lot. Everyone was so excited. Everyone I know was saying, ‘You’ve got to win. We’re going to be there, so you’ve got to win.’ ”